Hemant Mehta, a.k.a. “The Friendly Atheist” points to this post at a blog written by a Christian minister which offers a little reality check that religious people might want to test against from time to time in order to have a better sense of whether or not their belief system actually incorporates the ideas of tolerance and compassion that they hold up as hallmarks of their respective dogmas. Mehta quite correctly points out that this particular self-assessment is as useful for atheists and other non-believers, since those particular qualities are also often touted by us as well, and are, quite honestly, often equally abused in the struggle to achieve acceptance.
Here is the set of questions:
1. Do I truly believe that everyone has the right to their own beliefs or lack thereof?
2. Can I respect the person, even though I may not respect their ideas?
3. Do I have the capacity to recognize my own fallacies?
4. Will it kill me if I were wrong?
5. Am I able to hold what I believe is truth lightly in the interest of dialog?
6. Can I overlook and maybe even appreciate the idiosyncrasies of others in order to hear what they have to say?
7. Am I willing to discern the deeper currents rather than being distracted by the surface ripples?
8. Can everyone play? In other words, will I not ostracize someone because of their beliefs or lack thereof?
9. Is personal harm to others the only prohibition I am willing to make?
10. Do I love all beings, and if not, am I willing?
At the pastor’s blog, I note that in the comments there are some people who seem to see this as a yes/no situation rather than the starting point for serious evaluation and dialog, so I’d suggest to readers here that you don’t barrel-ass through them yourself as if this were one of the little quizzes we are so fond of, but to think about them. As I spent a little time doing that myself, I tried to be honest and not just toss off one-word answers, with the result that I find myself thinking a little bit more about the last two questions and how they apply to my own worldview.
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